Kenny's House Ippekiko Ito

... town, we got off and walked through the picturesque cedar avenue to the next town, Hakone-Machi. From here we got on the sightseeing boat to cros the lake (Ashino-Ko) - a pirate ship nonetheless. I kid you not! We also managed to not get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji all this time (the whole reason for coming this way) because of the poor visibility and low cloud. At the other side of the lake we caught the ...

... taro root and soba noodles. It actually was all pretty good.
A shinkansen (bullet train) took us back to Tokyo. By this time I was just out of it, seeing as I still had not been able to sleep. Thankfully last night I got a full nights sleep so feel much better.
A reception and dinner last night wrapped it up at the hotel.
All the Japanese are so nice and polite. We are having a wonderful time!

... Fuji – any photo you have seen does not do it justice. It is amazingly huge.

The second ropeway went over a sulphide mine – they call it hell valley – and the rotten egg smell filled our noses. We bought a black egg, which is an egg cooked in the sulphide water which turns the egg black and gives it a slight smokey (dare we say "*****" smell). Although an acquired taste; local legend says that eating one will ...

Konichiwa.

Well we rose fairly early and finished packing our gear as we prepared to leave Tokyo. We bid farewell to the oh-so-friendly staff at the Sakura hostel in Asakusa. We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay and can recommend the place to any traveller to Tokyo. It suited us heaps as it is laid back and friendly, they all spoke great English and were just the nicest and most helpful folk we could have imagined.

Now seasoned travellers in the Tokyo ...

... Przede wszystkich siedzi się na podłodze przy bardzo niskich stolikach, na małych poduszkach i obowiązkowo zarówno goście jak i obsługa chodzą bez butów (podobnie jak w ryokanie). Jedzenie tofu pałeczkami wciąż jest wyzwaniem (tofu jest bardzo miękkie), ale dawaliśmy radę. Stolik obok siedziała inna para, z którą wspólnie wznieśliśmy toast sake (bez stukania się kieliszkami) i w momencie kiedy pad ...

... mountainside with a raised platform near it! I had seen pictures of people standing under the torii at the summit so thought we just had to be patient (and frozen!) for a tiny bit longer.

BUT it was a teaser torii!! And the sign said we had 400m to go. This is when it was good we were with each other because it would have been disastrous alone. We were shivering and our hands were swollen from the climb and there was no escape but to wait for the line to ...

... the day’s adventures we just chilled out in the evening.


Rising early the next day, we were able to see the stunning Hakone in day light. After a breakfast of croissants, we caught the local train up the zigzag railway, which took us past the breath-taking scenery of the national park and up into the huge mountains. We then caught a cable-car over the serene Lake Ashi, the part of the journey where, if you are lucky you can see mount Fuji. Unfortunately ...

... 3A allocated but moved myself to the vacant 1A when the train started to move. These front row seat row gave a 180degree view of the entire trip and the only thing blocking the view, was the glass window! It was a pleasant train ride, watching the dense city landscape transform ...

Today was my last day of work! I had a great lunch with a group of attorneys and gave some little gifts so my secretaries and mentor and attorney-friend there: Kanayama-sensei. They gave me a very nice gift: a porcelain tea set from the attorneys and secretaries since I drank so much tea in the office! The set had beautiful pink sakura flowers on it and I loved it! I also made sure not the rip the wrapping paper it came in and to fold up the paper and put it ...

We had breakfast at the hotel and were then picked up for our tour to Mt.Fuji. The first stop was at a service station on the way down to Mount Fuji to allow people to get a drink and stretch their legs. As it was such a clear day you could see the peak of Mt.Fuji from the service station.

A few minutes later we were on our way to the viewing area on Mt.Fuji. Due to snow we went to the second level from the bottom but it still had ...